Eileen Hull

The Birds go to CHA!

23 Feb

Maybe this could be a series- where oh where will the Birds appear next?

Here’s a project that I created for the ImpressArt booth at CHA. I used their cool metal alphabets to make a recycled soda can mobile. Once again the Bird die came in handy, as did the ScoreBoard Butterfly. Both are from my Sizzix Fresh Vintage collection.

First I cut the shapes from soda cans- two butterflies and birds for each hanging piece. I also cut one matboard shape as a base for each. I hammered the metal stamped words on the silver side of each soda can shape. Then I took alcohol inks and the foam blender and dabbed the color on. Each one is different- some I filled with color, some were sparsely inked and some were in between. What unified the project was the color palette- my favorite blues, greens, purples and yellows.

To finish, I hot glued the soda can shapes to the center of the matboard bases but allowed the sides and wings to bow out giving nice dimension. Then I punched a very fine hole in the top of the shape for hanging and threaded fishing line through each one. I thought I would go insane tying these on- fishing line is very annoying to work with! But it was worth it- the birds and butterflies look almost like they are floating in midair. I also added some beads to separate strands of fishing line to counterbalance the weight.

Another discovery- photographing a mobile is no easy task! I wanted good light so I carefully took the whole piece outside and suspended it from a tree branch. Every time I would go to take a picture, the wind would blow and everything moved! So I have about 30 horrible blurred pictures of this cool mobile. Finally I had to admit defeat, pack it up and send without getting a decent photo… Oh well…

The hardest part of this project was figuring out how to make the hanger part of it. I tried three embroidery hoops tied together with ribbon, and then wired frames in three varying sizes together, but they were too overwhelming for the delicate hanging pieces. I wound up finding a baby mobile at a thrift store for $5. After removing the A-B-C’s and 1-2-3’s, I added my own pieces. Recycling at its best!

Do you have a bird or butterfly project you’ve made with these dies that you’d like to share? Send it on over to me (EileenHull@aol.com) and I will feature it here!

Is spring really on the way? Seems like it in VA…

The Bird goes to school…

21 Feb

You never know where a Sizzix die will show up next! I had a call from my friend Lorine asking if she could borrow my Bird die. Her friend Connie was working on a special project with her class. Here’s what Connie says:

The Great Backyard Bird Count is done across North America and sponsored by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon Society, and others. We had to observe, identify, and count for 15 min birds visiting the feeders outside each classroom. For the young ones, birds are a great class room activity, bringing the outside “in”.

The children ranged in age from 3 to 6. The three year old class did cardinals (simple color-red with black mask around an orange beak). With the four year old class I added to the cardinals white die cut birds (black capped chickadees), and buff die cut birds (house sparrow). For the kindergarteners I added grey for the tufted titmouse. For our kindergarten enrichment class we focused on house sparrows and used a dark brown base for their birds.

Normally the children would cut, color, and make each bird, but with only 15-25 min there wasn’t time for the children to do each step. Since the goal was identification and counting, the pre-cut birds, combined with photos of each species, allowed the children to pick out the distinguishing characteristics of each species. They used crayons and markers to decorate them. I’m enclosing photos of some of their “birds”. One class used clothes pins to perch their cardinals in the window and other classes made mobiles with theirs. All in all a wonderful craft to our observations. Thank you! Once again, the die cut birds were fabulous! Connie

P.S. They also fly very well. The kindergarten boys proved this!

How cool is that? Love the P.S. 🙂 Here are a few more pictures of the children’s finished artwork. ScoreBoard dies are specially designed to cut thick materials, like the chipboard used here, which is a great choice for kids because it’s so sturdy. And who knew that chipboard could fly?

What would you make with the Bird die? Come back for a look at another project using this little guy….

Crunch time

18 Feb

First of all, Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter Maryanne! Have to run out to get a cake mix for the traditional yellow cake and blue buttercream icing…

It’s so much fun to be able to make a card using dies that I designed! The flower was die cut from a sheet of pretty pink gingham tissue paper and the leaves I cut from this cool grocery bag type fabric found at JoAnn’s which I have not been able to find again and am kicking myself that I didn’t get more.

Blessings, love and hope for a great year to my beautiful daughter!

This week I have been hard at work in my studio brainstorming and drawing die designs for 2013. It’s hard to imagine working that far out but it takes a long time for the finished product to be designed, tested, produced and on the shelf.

I also received a box of sample dies that will come out at the CHA Summer 12 show. Thankfully they all work- I am always nervous that they won’t, even though I test them several times before sending the artwork.

I’ll be back blogging more often once these dies are finished and on their way! Hope you all have a nice long weekend!

LOVE using Metal Stamps

11 Feb

Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, I wanted to share a project I did for the ImpressArt booth at CHA. I used their awesome metal stamps to stamp into matboard- crazy, huh? But look at it! These stamps are so much fun…

According to Suzann Sladcik Wilson‘s CHA Jewelry Trends Report on Mixed Media and Cross Crafting, metal stamping will be hot for 2012, and not just for jewelry. I may be a little biased here but I think matboard is the perfect material to use with metal stamps. There is some give to it, but it’s also thick enough that the stamp does not go through it, as it could with lighter paper.

I will admit it takes a little practice to get the hang of metal stamping, but once you get going, it’s hard to stop. FYI, it’s best to do this in daytime hours as the banging gets the non-night owl people kind of cranky…

I used black pigment ink on my stamp before applying it to the matboard. I did this because it was going on a wall in the trade show booth and I wanted it to stand out. But the impression looks great even without ink. It’s subtle and has a letterpress look to it. Believe me, this is something you will want to try! So easy to make tags, title blocks and accents- then ink, distress, chalk, etc. I hope you will check out ImpressArt and give this craft a try!

Head over to the Tip Junkie to see lots of other fun Valentine ideas…

Also make sure to check out the FaveCrafts blog hop!

CHAW 2012

6 Feb

Hi everyone! I returned from CHA last Thursday and am finally getting back to normal. Wow- what a fun busy week it was! Next time remind me not to schedule every minute though… because sadly, I did not get to walk the show and see all of the new stuff 🙁

Today is first Monday and time to check in with the Designer Connection! Everyone is reporting in on their CHA experiences. Click on the blue icon on the sidebar to see what the members of the group were up to at the show. Did I mention I was part of a flash mob?

I spent a good bit of time in the Sizzix booth, demoing my new line of ScoreBoard dies, Sweet Treats. People seemed to enjoy building the boxes and I loved meeting everyone.

Here’s a picture of Cara and Tammy standing in front of the display. It looked super cute and bright and fun! Cara is the Art Director and is so very good at what she does- including making my stuff look fabulous. Thank you Cara!

Tammy Tutterow, a talented designer and blogger extroardinaire, is new to the Sizzix team and will be the Design Team and Community Coordinator. So excited to be working with her!

Here’s a quick video clip showing a few of my new samples in the booth done by the multi-talented Stephanie Barnard, our Sizzix Spokesperson, who also happens to be the owner of the Stamps of Life.

Karen Burniston and I had a great time teaching our sold-out Sizzix Workshop, Love is in the Air. We were so busy teaching I didn’t get a pic of us!

In fact, I looked on my phone and camera and realized I hardly took any. If you have any photos you could share, could you email them to me? I told you… too busy! Next time… 🙂 It was great seeing you all!

Check out some other attendees’s experiences (with much better photos!) here at the FaveCrafts CHA Roundup.

http://www.favecraftsblog.com/cha-recap-blog-roundup/

I will be posting my portion of the Designer Section Trends Report soon. What a pleasure working on that committee. Check back…

ImpressArt Metal Stamps

22 Jan

Are you sick of hearing about CHA yet? It’s almost here! I always say I will blog about it while I’m there every year and never do. It’s hard to describe the energy and excitement but by the time I get back to the hotel every night I can barely keep my eyes open to get on line to describe the events of the day. I need to recharge! But who knows, I could surprise us all 🙂

I’d like to invite you all to stop by the ImpressArt booth (#2719) and check out their cool metal stamps. I had the pleasure of creating some samples for their booth and discovered that these stamps work just great with my favorite material- yes, it’s matboard! Here’s a look at one of the projects I did for them…

Stop by and do a Make and Take! I’ll be in the booth on Tuesday from 2-4 and Wednesday from 10-12. My designer buddies Theresa Cifali, Ann Butler, and Jen Goode will be demo-ing there as well and I can’t wait to see what they have come up with using the stamps!